﻿The fall kitchen welcomes hearty soups that fill your belly. This soup uses Italian mild pork sausage with dark leafy kale. This soup is packed with vitamin rich veggies and beans to warm you up in the chilly autumn weather. Delicious and nutritious!

Instructions:

Begin by prepping all your winter veggies. Soups like these allow you to add any winter veg you might have on hand. (Admittedly, I never make the same soup twice!)

There’s a trick to kale. With one hand hold the stem and with the other loosely grab the stem from the bottom and move upward quickly. You’ll zip the leafy green part right off, leaving the tough stems. Chop the leaves into inch wide strips.

Start your aromatics. Using bacon fat or olive oil, add onions, carrots, celery and garlic to a large stock pot. Gently cook these until the onions are translucent.

Take the sausage out of it’s casing. I prefer larger sausage chunks in this kind of soup, so I pinch off bite-sized chunks into the pot. Don’t rustle them, and they’ll start to cook in those pieces.

Add all the liquids. the stock, tomato puree and the wine.

Add in the kale, bouquet garni of fresh herbs, and the lentils. Bring the soup to a boil. Let it boil for 5 minutes. Then turn it down to a simmer and add the cooked beans.

Let the soup simmer uncovered for at least an hour to cook the lentils through. I like to let it simmer for longer so that the flavors can all get to know one another Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can enjoy this soup straight out of the pot or add some rustic breadcrumbs.

Roughly cut up a older french loaf into bite size pieces. In a bowl, lightly cover them with olive oil and a healthy sprinkling of dried Italian spices.

Spread them out on a baking sheet and bake at 400°F until they turn a nice toasty brown. Add these to your bowl of soup with some grated parmigiana cheese.